For All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, November 8, November 15, November 22 (Christ the King), November 29 (First Sunday of Advent) All Saints’ Day – November 1, 2020 Readings: Rv 7:2–4, 9–14 • Ps 24:1BC–2, 3–4AB, 5–6 • 1 Jn 3:1–3 • Mt 5:1 … [Read more...]
About David Vincent Meconi
David Meconi served as editor of Homiletic & Pastoral Review from 2010 to 2022.
Super-essential Work amid COVID-19
April 4, 2020 by David Vincent Meconi
Has anyone else been a bit taken aback in realizing that you are not an “essential worker”? Of course, we Jesuits are supposed to pray for, and in fact are all in dire need of, humility. So perhaps this should be the Lenten lesson my bro … [Read more...]
A Sacerdotal Summer
September 11, 2019 by David Vincent Meconi
St. Ignatius of Loyola likened the “enemy of our human nature” to a cunning military strategist who sussed out each of our weakest defenses and thereby knew exactly where to strike. A war for souls is truly on, both on the individual as wel … [Read more...]
The Tender Heart
April 22, 2019 by David Vincent Meconi
Where in any classical literature do men rejoice over wounds? In the ancients, injuries and lacerations bring about sorrow, if not revenge. But in the Gospel reading for Divine Mercy Sunday (Jn 20:19–31), we see a new understanding of v … [Read more...]
A Spirituality of Advent
November 30, 2018 by David Vincent Meconi
Advent is a time of preparation. It has many parallels to Lent: we don the purple, we suppress the Gloria (awaiting the angels to sing it again for the first time at Midnight Mass), and we are given weeks to allow the Holy Spirit to prepare … [Read more...]
Jesus Offers Us His Sacred Heart
June 14, 2018 by David Vincent Meconi
For millennia, the human heart has served as a living sign of love and affection. For the Greeks, the heart—or kardia—was where the nerves of all sensate animals met; but in humans, it was also the place where the soul enlarges, “when it des … [Read more...]
Easter Morning
March 30, 2018 by David Vincent Meconi
The heart of our Catholic Existence is to replicate the Risen Christ’s life. It is not Good Friday that saves our souls, but Easter morning. For without our Lord’s victorious rising from the tomb, the ignominy of the Cross would have just be … [Read more...]
The True Christmas Exchange
Christ’s Striving to Take Flesh Anew
December 30, 2017 by David Vincent Meconi
Christmas did not happen only in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. The coming of Christ is not simply an historical event recorded deep in our human history. If it were, you and I would be historians but not Christians. The days of preparation … [Read more...]
The Stability of the Cross
May 1, 2017 by David Vincent Meconi
The movements of Holy Week and Eastertide are enacted to bring the Christian people to the stability of a pierced love that cannot be shaken. Year after year, the Cross beckons and asks if we are faithful in our love, if we can stand with … [Read more...]
Munus Docendi
March 9, 2017 by David Vincent Meconi
Fr. Karl Rahner (1904-1984) began as a faith-filled and imaginative theologian, someone who, even now, still provides unmatchable insights into the nature of divinity, and into the searching soul who longs to cleave to God. Rahner worked … [Read more...]
Father John Navone, S.J.
His obituary plus two of his articles.
January 30, 2017 by David Vincent Meconi
Fr. John "Jack" Navone, S.J., died on Christmas Day 2016. He was one of our regular contributors, and will be missed by all of us at HPR, and those who faithfully followed his thoughtful essays. May he rest in peace! We are including two … [Read more...]
What Is Really At Stake for Catholic Voters in this Election
November 2016 Editorial
November 4, 2016 by David Vincent Meconi
In his Republic, Plato argues that we all get the government we deserve. That is, the political leaders of any given people are a direct reflection of what those people hold dear. Does a society think riches are the defining characteristic … [Read more...]
A Recurring Problem at Georgetown University
May 14, 2016 by David Vincent Meconi
As a member of the Society of Jesus, it was embarrassing. As a member of the Society of Jesus, it was distressing, to say the least. It was right there in all the papers: life had become cheap—very cheap—happening at one of the first ins … [Read more...]
The Slumber of Holy Saturday
April 14, 2016 by David Vincent Meconi
Holy Saturday has come and gone, but is it not the symbolic day of our Faith on earth? In the 70s, a popular mantra arose that we are an “Easter people.” Yet the abuses continue, dissent is institutionally maintained, the wicked go unc … [Read more...]
The Pillars of Lent
February 1, 2016 by David Vincent Meconi
The purifying Season of Lent is quickly upon us. We human persons are enabled to do something that lower creatures cannot, and higher creatures need not: to sacrifice and thus to learn to delay partial gratifications for even greater … [Read more...]
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